The plan consists of 7 funds. It covers 3 major asset classes and 6 minor asset classes. The major asset classes it covers are Fixed Income, US Equity and Foreign Equity.
Washington State Retirement System provides state employees (such as University of Washington, Washington State University) a Washington State Plan 3 for school employees (SERS), public employees (PERS) and teachers (TRS). A participant could either choose to invest in Total Allocation Portfolio (TAP) that is managed by Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) or choose a self-directed option. In the self-directed option, a participant could choose a one-step strategy to simply invest in a target date fund or adopt so called 'Build and Monitor' approach. In the 'Build and Monitor' approach, its investment choices consist of a list of diversified funds and retirement strategy funds. The diversified funds include
- Money Market Fund. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: CASH
- Washington State Bond Fund. It seeks to match or exceed the return of the Barclays Capital Intermediate credit Index. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: Vanguard Intermediate Term Investment Grade Bond Fund (VFICX).
- Socially Responsible Balanced Fund. It seeks to replicate a composite of the S&P 500 Index (55%) and the Barclays capital Aggregate Index (45%). Evergreen Plans proxy fund: Vanguard Balance Index Fund (VBINX).
- U.S. Large Stock Index Fund. It is managed by BlackRock Institutional Trust Company. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: BlackRock S&P500 Index I (MASRX).
- U.S. Stock Market Index Fund. It seeks to replicate the returns and characteristics of the Russell 3000. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: iShares Russell 3000 (IWV).
- U.S. Small Stock Index Fund. It seeks to replicate returns of Russell 200 Index. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM).
- International Stock Index Fund. It seeks to replicate MSCI EAFE Index. Evergreen Plans proxy fund: iShares MSCI EAFE ETF (EFA).
Retirement Strategy Funds include a series of funds called 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030, 2035, 2040, 2045, 2050 and 2055 Retirement Strategy Funds. These funds are not included in this Evergreen Plans.
The following is the excessive trading policy:
To protect funds in the Self-Directed Investment Program from
the effects of excessive trading, a member transferring more
than $1,000 out of a fund is required to wait 30 calendar days
before transferring money back into that same fund. The 30 day
window is based on the last time you made a transfer out of the
fund. This restriction will not affect your regular contribution
or the ability to leave state service and withdraw contributions
and earnings from Plan 3. DRS periodically reviews trade data
to identify excessive trading. If DRS determines that existing
restrictions are not sufficiently addressing excessive trade
practices DRS, at its discretion, may take additional action. DRS
reserves the right to establish or revise restrictions to comply
with federal or state regulations, or as circumstances indicate.